Court Teaches Carol Burnett A Little Something About Parody

from the funny-stuff dept

Fri, Jun 8th 2007 6:39am — Mike Masnick

Back in March, we noted the irony of famed comedian Carol Burnett suing the producers of the TV show Family Guy after the show included a brief parody of one of Burnett's famous characters. After all, Burnett should know all about parody -- including the fact that it's protected free speech. Unfortunately, it looks like this lesson in parody had to be taught to Burnett by a judge, who explained that there was absolutely nothing illegal in what the TV show did, no matter "how distasteful and offensive the segment is to Ms. Burnett."

22 Comments

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Ken, 8 Jun 2007 @ 7:11am

Typo?
TV show did, now matter

Now matter? Not matter instead?
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- meh, 17 Mar 2009 @ 6:05am
  
  Re: Typo?
  retard.
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Tech Dirt?, 8 Jun 2007 @ 7:20am

Is this Tech Dirt or Hollywood dirt?

I'm missing the tech in this artical. Shouldn't this be on E or some entertainment news site where I fortunatly would never see or hear of it?
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- ehrichweiss, 8 Jun 2007 @ 7:31am
  
  Re:
  IP is so embedded in the tech field that I don't mind hearing about related cases that might show the current attitudes of the courts toward such things.
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- billy, 8 Jun 2007 @ 8:45am
  
  Re:
  Is this Tech Dirt or Hollywood dirt?
  
  I'm missing the tech in this artical. Shouldn't this be on E or some entertainment news site where I fortunatly would never see or hear of it?
  
  -----------------------------------
  
  Parody and technology go hand in hand, especially if you've ever used Microsoft Windows.
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- Anonymous Coward, 8 Jun 2007 @ 10:58am
  
  Re:
  Is this Tech Dirt or Hollywood dirt?
  Hollywood? Isn't Family Guy a television show? And isn't television a type of technology?
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JS Beckerist, 8 Jun 2007 @ 7:28am

re: Ken
More like... "no matter."
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jun 2007 @ 7:33am

Court Teaches Carol Burnett A Little Something Abo
LOL...A parodist gets offended when someone makes fun of her...how ironic is that?
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Mick, 8 Jun 2007 @ 7:49am

Yea, but if it was a parody of Coca cola, or paris hilton, I think they would have found otherwise. Me, you and Carol Burnett got no rights!
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- Matt, 8 Jun 2007 @ 8:09am
  
  Re:
  Because no television show has ever made fun of Paris Hilton!
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- Paul`, 8 Jun 2007 @ 8:26am
  
  Re:
  South Park did an entire episode on Paris Hilton in which her Dog kills its self and she inserts a pineapple into one of her two fun holes.
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James, 8 Jun 2007 @ 7:50am

This is amusing...
...considering how many people/companies she parodied on her own show.
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Matthew, 8 Jun 2007 @ 8:03am

Take that DMCA
*mops up floor with parodied effigy of Carol Burnett's janitor character*
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Family Guy Sucks, 8 Jun 2007 @ 8:06am

It does.
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Cornelius, 8 Jun 2007 @ 9:24am

haha.
Funny article, but i thought i had clicked on my Reuters: Oddly Enough link while i was reading it! TECHdirt........ >.>
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Jun 2007 @ 9:38am

Is this Tech Dirt or Hollywood dirt?

I'm missing the tech in this artical. Shouldn't this be on E or some entertainment news site where I fortunatly would never see or hear of it?

this is about IP - intellectual property - which is intimately involved in all kinds of TECHnology...
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- Anonymous Coward, 8 Jun 2007 @ 10:04am
  
  Re:
  Just because all IT is IP doesn't mean that all IP is IT.
  
  This might be in here is because lots of geeks like FG. All of the Trek references in FG attest to that.
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Uncle Deercamp, 8 Jun 2007 @ 10:13am

stupid broad
For wasting the court system's time, Carol Burnett should have to mop floors at Fox for a week.
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James, 8 Jun 2007 @ 11:13am

As said above this seems way off topic for this site, but if Family Guy made fun of me I would be extremely HONORED.
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Charles Griswold, 8 Jun 2007 @ 2:52pm

Techdirt
Guys, lighten up. There's no reason to get your knickers in a twist just because Mike occasionally writes about issues that are not directly related to technology.
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- Dosquatch, 8 Jun 2007 @ 3:06pm
  
  Re: Techdirt
  Seriously. He writes about patents, you bitch. He writes about copyright, you bitch. He writes about gambling embargos, you bitch. He writes about... well, whatever, you bitch.
  
  I don't think it's Mike. I think a lot of you just like to bitch.
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  - Charles Griswold, 8 Jun 2007 @ 5:05pm
    
    Re: Re: Techdirt
    I don't think it's Mike. I think a lot of you just like to bitch.
    Every time Mike writes about something that isn't directly tech-related, al-Qaeda kills a puppy.
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